How does a drama student reflect on and evaluate the process of making and performing drama to improve their practice?
Reflect on and evaluate the process and product of devising and performing drama using evidence and informed judgement
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Drama Unit 4 dot point on reflection and evaluation. The difference between description and evaluation, criteria and evidence, reflecting on process and product, and how informed judgement improves a student's drama practice for an audience.
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What this dot point is asking
The Drama ATAR course has a whole outcome devoted to responding, reflecting and evaluating, so this is assessed work, not an afterthought. Examiners reward students who evaluate with evidence and informed judgement rather than simply recounting events.
Description, reflection and evaluation
These three are often confused. Description says what happened. Reflection examines the experience, asking what you noticed, what you tried and how it felt. Evaluation makes a judgement, deciding how successful something was and why, against some standard. The marks live in reflection and evaluation. An answer that only narrates a rehearsal, however detailed, has not yet done the thinking the dot point asks for.
Reflecting on process
Process reflection looks at how the work was made: how the ensemble collaborated, how a stimulus was developed, how problems were solved, what was discarded and why, and how decisions were reached. It also includes your own contribution and growth. Honest process reflection names specific moments, such as a decision to cut a scene or a breakthrough in an improvisation, and considers what they taught you about making drama.
Reflecting on product
Product reflection evaluates the finished performance: how clearly it communicated its intention, how the audience responded, how well the elements of drama and chosen styles worked, and where it succeeded or fell short. Strong product evaluation measures the work against its own aims, asking whether it did what the ensemble set out to do for its audience, rather than judging it against some unrelated ideal.
Using criteria and evidence
Informed judgement needs something to judge against and something to point to. Criteria might include the clarity of the intention, the unity of the style, the truth of the performances or the audience response. Evidence might be a specific moment in performance, a recorded audience reaction, feedback, or a comparison with an earlier rehearsal. Naming the criterion and citing the evidence is what turns an opinion into an evaluation that earns marks.
Feeding reflection back into practice
The purpose of reflection is improvement. A good evaluation does not stop at judgement; it identifies what you would do differently and why, turning insight into a plan for the next piece. This forward-looking quality, sometimes called reflective practice, is what distinguishes a developing artist from someone who merely reports on their work, and it is exactly what the course is trying to build.
How this maps to the exam
In the written exam you may be asked to evaluate a process, a performance or a production, including your own work. Make a clear judgement, name the criterion you are judging against, support it with specific evidence, and where relevant say what you would change, so the response is evaluative rather than descriptive.